Ottawa police promise crackdown against ‘dangerous’ trucker protest

February 4, 2022

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Ottawa police vowed on Friday to crack down on an “increasingly dangerous” protest by hundreds of truckers who have shut down the center of the Canadian capital for eight days to demand an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The well-organised blockade – which police say has relied partly on U.S. funding – is unprecedented by Canadian standards. Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said hundreds more truckers were planning to enter the city this weekend.

“This remains…an increasingly volatile and increasingly dangerous demonstration,” he told a news conference.

Protesters in the downtown core “remain highly organized, well funded, extremely committed to resisting all attempts to end the demonstration safely”, he added.

Sloly, who said he and other top officials had received death threats, likened the protest to the Jan. 6, 2021 riots in Washington when thousands of people stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory.

To the increasing fury of residents, Ottawa police have so far largely stood by and watched as some protesters smashed windows, threatened reporters and abused racial minorities.

Sloly said police would put in place a “surge and contain” strategy, including reinforcements of 150 officers deployed downtown, to restore order.

“The hatred, the violence, the illegal acts that Ottawa residences and businesses have endured over the last week are unacceptable in any circumstances,” he said.

Some demonstrators want an end to a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers while others insist Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau be deposed on the grounds he exceeded his authority by imposing restrictions to clamp down on the pandemic.

Blockades are also planned in Toronto and Quebec City. The protest movement is starting to divide the official opposition Conservative Party, which this week ousted its leader amid complaints he had not sufficiently backed the truckers.

Interim Conservative chief Candice Bergen, in an email leaked to the Globe and Mail, said on Monday “we need to turn this into the PM’s problem”. But the party’s public safety spokesman, Pierre Paul-Hus, tweeted on Friday that the blockade needed to end.

Police have uncovered at least two operations centers in Ottawa, with more across the country, and say demonstrators are receiving professional legal advice.

Sloly said police would order some truckers to move and if they refuse, their vehicles will be towed.

Officers will also take down license numbers and check whether drivers are violating the terms of their insurance.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Mark Porter and Mark Heinrich)